Star Wars: Lords of the Sith
by E. S. Malaga
Summary: This is the outline of the first half of a story I came up with for me and my friends to play through on Dungeons and Dragons game night. They weren't interested however so i was left with this story. I thought about turning it into an actual narrative, but decided i would put it here first. Please leave thoughts in the comments, and i might complete it if there is enough interest.


**STAR WARS**

 **The Sith Lords**

It is a time of chaos in The Old Republic. While the Jedi struggle to maintain peace in the core systems, the wicked Sith Lords run rampant in the Outer Rim. Darth Volusk abducts individuals at random, conscripting them for his war. More troublesome is the shadowy figure ruling over the Dark Empire. All efforts to locate either the Emperor or his base have been fruitless.

On the unassuming planet of Dasvima, a man has put a call to bounty hunters and mercenaries all across the galaxy to find the Emperor of the Sith. Three strangers have come to answer his call, captivated by the promise of wealth, fame, and adventure…

Vasen is the name of the man who hired you. He is a jedi knight gathering information on the Sith presence in the system. He tells you that, because of their reliance on the dark side of the force, their empire is equally unstable and bound to fall. His plan is to find the High King and eliminate him. Without the king to hold the chaotic empire together, the sith lords will all fall in their scramble for power.

You arent the only ones to find out about Vasen however, and another bounty hunter named Adrem Maxxon is there. Rather than work with you and split the rewards he leaves to do it alone and claim the target for himself. He leaves before Vasen can share his plan to get started. He reveals a sith holocron inside his bag, and says that a platoon of sith warriors are on their way to retrieve the stolen property, and they promptly arrive to capture you.

Either with a fight or without, you become overwhelmed and they take you up to the star cruiser they have in orbit, where they bring you to their leader, Darth Volusk himself. He separates each member of the party and interrogates them one by one to discover exactly where they found this holocron and whether they would be useful to his purpose. While being kept prisoner, Vasen helps you escape the cell block and his plan steps into action; find an information library to download a map of the entire empire and all its strongholds.

While searching through the information, you discover that the high king and Volusk are stealing people all across the galaxy based on their aptitude with the force, and conditioning them into an army of highly powerful Dark Jedi. Eventually, while defending him from oncoming troopers and fighters, Vasen finds a map he can use that could lead him to the seat of the empire. Volusk blocks you as you make your escape to steal a ship, and reveals that he can sense the power of the force in all of you, offering to train you with the power of the dark side.

A brief fight follows but is interrupted by Maxxon, the bounty hunter from before, who distracts the dark lord with cannon fire from his ship. With Darth Volusk incapacitated you all escape with the information you need, or so you think. Maxxon demands you turn the information over to him, as payment for your rescue, and it turns out it is heavily encrypted and requires the help of one far more trained in the force than Vasen; Garon Jard, one of the founders of the Jedi Order. Having been long dead, Vasen hopes to make contact through the Force on the planet Tython, where the order was birthed. With no other alternative to reach his prize, Maxxon agrees to take you there.

The ship arrives on Tython and as you enter orbit the power seems to fail. As if by tractor beam, the ship is pulled into a vast swamp in along the equator of the planet, but no technological signs can be detected. The power of the Force is incredible in this swamp, and as you make your way deeper into it, you face hallucinations and are forced to fight your deepest fears to discover where you align with the force. A large shadowy figure approaches Vasen when it is his turn, but the vision is dispelled by a jedi knight named Zhaka Tei (a Sephi jedi) who reveals herself as a guardian of the Temple of the Je'Dai, who would later become the Jedi Order, from all who would use the knowledge inside to disturb the balance of the galaxy. She senses the plan that Vasen has shared with all of you, and warns that such plans however noble, are still murder fueled by hate, advising against it.

You convince her that the Emperor must be stopped, his armies bringing unfathomable pain to the galaxy, and she agrees to take you to the temple, which isnt far. Furthermore, she says that the planet Tython is incredibly strong with the Force, and drew your ship here in the first place. It must be a sign that you are destined to overthrow the Emperor of the Sith.

The Temple is a very high stone structure similar to the aztec pyramids, but instead of being built from bricks or overlapping rock, it is all one seamless stone shape, as if carved or risen in this shape to fulfil its purpose in the universe. Zhaka leads you down the grand entrence into a more modest room, round with small beds of moss on the ground. She kneels down on one of them and begins to meditate, Vasen does the same, motioning for you to do as they do, and call upon the Force. Not much time passes before a humanoid being comes into shape, glowing slightly in the dim room. He smiles down at Zhaka and asks her to rise, the same for all of you.

He introduces himself as Garon Jard, founder of the Order, and asks why you have come so far, sensing the journey you have been through. He agrees to help you find the Sith Emperor, and as you lay the holocron holding the map on the ground, Maxxon speaks over your comm pieces. It looks as if someone followed you from Volusk's ship, and he still needs more time to fix the hyperdrive engines before they can escape. Jard agrees that it might be best if they hurry, and Zhaka and Vasen aid him in meditating over the holocron while you go out to defend the temple with Zhaka's comment; "Tython will help you."

You walk outside the temple with weapons in hand to see three Sith assault ships making a descent before great vines rise from the swamp to wrap around two of them and fling them to the ground with violent crashes. One ship remains and lands just inside the swamp before the temple, and a wave of combatants come through the trees to attack you. After the fight, Vasen rushes out with the holocron in his hands saying they need to hurry and leave the planet before more Sith come to destroy the temple, saying that Zhaka will keep the place safe.

Maxxon lands closer to the temple so you can all climb aboard quickly and make the jump to hyperspace away from Tython. While the ship flies on autopilot to a more neutral area, Adrem Maxxon pushes an ultimatum; either give him the map to finish the job after he drops you at a peaceful planet, or he can kill everyone on this ship and carry on with only Vasen taking the map anyway. You can either try to overpower him on his own ship (which is not advised) or talk him down, he will respond to rumors of the vast treasure the Sith Lords keep, ripe for the taking.

If you choose to fight him, he activates a mechanism that will flood the entire bridge with poisonous gas that his helmet lets him breathe through in 5 minutes, and you must defeat him before that time. If you decide to reason with him, he agrees to get you a little extra help in your assault on the emperor. Where he takes you to his home planet of Corellia, where he is unmasked as Jelto Solo, one of the royal sons of Berethon e Solo, King of the Corellian Empire, and ally to the Galactic Republic. Berethon agrees to lend you a fleet to attack the seat of the Empire in exchange for acknowledgement of his aid in destroying the Sith, and establishing a Jedi Temple in the Corellian systems, so young ones sensitive to the force might not be transported across the galaxy like cargo. With the Corellian fleet at your back, you set course for the destination on the map you stole; Korriban, the original Sith homeworld.

As powerful and steeped in the dark side of the force as Tython was in the Light, Korriban is an evil and desolate planet that spawns lures those susceptible to the Force onto its stormy, arid grounds and seduces them to the Dark Side of the Force. It is here that the Dark Emperor holds his throne and orchestrates terror across the galaxy. As your fleet drops out of hyperspace, they are immediately beset by sith cruisers, as well as terror at the sight of the planet, the weaker willed dying almost instantly as the Emperor invades their minds. Jelto Solo commands you to take several small ships and go down to the planet's surface while he directs the fleet in orbit.

You, Vasen, and a Corellian General go down to Korriban to storm his throne at the northern pole of the planet. The ships touch down in the black snow as lightning rages overhead, and the wind howling in your ears carries the screams of all the victims of the Sith. You make your way to the fortress, shaped like an egyptian pyramid cut from onyx, and feel the overwhelming presence of the Emperor all around you as you walk it's lightless halls. You come into a room that is pitch black. As the walls seal shut behind you, red lightsaber blades scream to life around you, in equal number to youl, and Acolytes of the sith step forward. In the center of the now ominously lit room, sitting in a black throne you see the massive form of the Emperor of the Sith himself. He addresses you and you can hear his voice as much in your head as in the air around you.

"My foolish Jedi, did you not think I could sense you across this star system? In this place my power is four times that of the greatest Jedi Grand Master, and my fleet will destroy your friends in orbit as surely as you will die here by my hand. Witness the power of the Dark Side of the Force!" he extends his hands and lightning crackles across the room and ignites the walls with rings of red lightning to incinerate anyone who touches it. "My apprentices; kill them and complete your training."

The Emperor raises a pillar for him to watch from. After the apprentices are defeated, much to the Emperor's sick pleasure, he lowers himself to fight you himself, wielding a giant lightsaber to fit his own size. Halfway through this fight, Darth Volusk arrives behind the Emperor, incapacitating the great man while Vasen steps in and completes the final blow, severing his head.

As you get ready to fight Volusk, Vasen kneels before him, being told he did well with his assignment and being revealed as the apprentice to Darth Volusk, who is then revealed to actually be Vasen's own daughter. His secret daughter was seduced to the dark side, so Vasen betrayed the order to be with her and takes the name Darth Kraven. Volusk orders him to spare you, offering again to train you with the Dark side. You hear Garon Jard and Zhaka speak to you from the air around you, telling you to flee, there is no way you can defeat them right now.

As you leave Volusk and Kraven try to stop your escape, but there is a presence in the force holding them back, and Volusk roars with rage enough to shake the temple as you flee behind them. Admiral Solo tries to ask you how the mission went as you board the dwindling armada, and you jump to lightspeed, saving the explanation on the way. Surprised at Vasen's betrayal he asks how you escaped from two Sith Lords and what you plan to do now. You feel yourself called back to Tython.

As he drops you off at the swamps of Tython, he promises to continue the fight in your absence. The Republic isn't the only enemy the sith have anymore. You watch the armada leave orbit and begin your trek to the temple. This time the swamp and forest welcomes you, and the fog is almost completely lifted from your path. You arrive at the temple to see the spirits of Zhaka and Garon Jard manifesting in the Force. They smile down at you, and your formal training can begin.


End file.
